


One of the Team

by MelodicAscent



Series: Kingdom Hearts Connections [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Destiny Islands, Gummi phones, I'm trying not to show shipping bias, It could be romantic if you want it to be, Keyblades, Multi, Platonic Riku/Namine, Radiant Garden, Read alongside Connection, Read at Your Own Risk, Spoilers for KH3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 10:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18247883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodicAscent/pseuds/MelodicAscent
Summary: It's Namine's turn to get some attention. Set in the same canon as my other work, Connection. Meant to be read before chapter 10 as a contextual one-shot.





	One of the Team

**Author's Note:**

> This should be read before chapter 10 of Connection. Please. Context is very important.

Naminé breathed deeply, letting the sweet air of Radiant Garden fill her lungs. Ever since the Restoration Committee finished their work, residents all over the city had been planting various species of flowers wherever they could. According to Leon, that’s how the city got its name in the first place.

Long gone was her short white dress. She’d never liked it that much anyway. It was too short and felt way more revealing than she was comfortable with. Instead, with Riku’s help, she’d gotten some new clothes. She wore a pale blue blouse with layers of frills running horizontally along it and dark blue denim shorts. She’d replaced her flip flops with a more comfortable, sturdier kind of sandal of the same light blue color as her shirt.

Ever since she’d woken up in Ienzo’s lab, Naminé had felt a sort of attachment to Radiant Garden. Maybe it was because that’s where she was created, back when Sora released his and Kairi’s hearts. Or maybe it was because of the kind people that lived there and took care of her. Sure, Kairi had offered her a spare room in her parents’ house, but Naminé was actually rather excited to live on her own.

She’d taken up learning magic from the wizard Merlin in exchange for housesitting whenever he was away to other worlds, which was often, as he had a habit of going to the Twilight Town Bistro at least once a day and enjoyed talking to other powerful magicians across the cosmos.

She lived in the castle. She had an entire tower to herself that she was free to explore. She had access to the castle’s vast library as well, and found herself there on numerous occasions, absorbing as much knowledge as she could.

But her favorite gift, aside from her life, was the Gummi Phone. She loved being able to talk to her friends without having to deal with confronting them in person. It was easier to talk to somebody when you didn’t have to look them in the eye. She was getting better at social interaction, but she still got really self-conscious, especially in large groups of people.

It was an interesting experience, getting to know the others in a much more personal way than she did before. She and Riku especially had been bonding, often texting until late into the night. He visited her often, too. It was a strange experience. Before everything had happened, she knew Riku as a boy who was battling the darkness within him and fighting to keep his friend safe. Now? Now Riku was a man, a master, and a champion of light. He was still the same, but completely different at the same time. Frankly, she liked the change.

Riku wasn’t the only one who’d changed. It seemed that all of her friends had grown up while she was gone, especially Sora. Gone was the happy-go-lucky kid, replaced with a stalwart young adult with a determination to protect everyone he cared about. Kairi was fighting alongside everyone else, learning how to use the keyblade under Riku and occasionally Aqua.

Naminé sighed. The keyblade. What a strange weapon. It could unlock truly anything: boxes, doors, worlds, hearts. She raised her right hand and flexed her fingers, the action that she knew would summon a keyblade if she had one.

But she didn’t.

It wasn’t that she felt left out. In fact, her friends didn’t seem to care that she didn’t have the same gift they had. Rather, she felt like she didn’t fully belong. She was the only member of the group without a keyblade.

By all accounts, she should have one. Roxas and Xion both had keyblades because of their connection to Sora. Shouldn’t her connection to Kairi do the same? Riku had once speculated that it was because Kairi didn’t realize she had the gift until after they had been separated, whereas Sora had been using the keyblade before.

Naminé snapped out of her reverie and spun around at the sound of screams. Looking toward the residential district, she saw smoke billowing towards the sky. Without thinking, she ran towards the fire.

Naminé pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and held it over her mouth as she approached the burning house. Many residents were in the street, watching the building burn. But one woman in particular was on her knees, sobbing furiously.

Naminé knelt next to the woman and placed her free hand on her back. “Ma’am, are you alright?”

The woman coughed, no doubt due to smoke inhalation, before responding. “My little girl. She’s still in there, but nobody is willing to go in and help.” She didn’t finish speaking before Naminé was running through the fire, dodging falling debris.

When she determined that the kid wasn’t on the main level, she carefully made her way up the stairs, casting blizzard spells in an attempt to keep the staircase from collapsing. Unfortunately, she hadn’t learned water magic yet, so she had to rely on ice for the time being.

As she ran from room to room, crouched below the thick layer of smoke and trying to breathe as little as possible, she heard something. A faint cough, down the hall. In the last bedroom, she found the little girl, curled up in a ball. The fire was everywhere, and she had been burnt multiple times already. Naminé scooped up the girl. She was maybe four, and Naminé could hold her on her hip with one arm and hold the handkerchief over the girl’s mouth with the other. It wouldn’t do to have her breathe in more smoke than she already had.

Naminé turned back to the door and started running down the hall. She cast cure spells on the girl as she ran, hoping to give her a fighting chance at life. Once she reached the stairs, however, things got tricky. She was out of magic, and the ice she’d left behind previously had long since melted. “Screw it,” she muttered, and tried to make her way down the stairs. One of the steps gave out under her weight and she fell through, dropping the girl down the rest of the staircase. Naminé cursed under her breath, fighting back tears and coughs as she held a leg that felt very broken. She still had a job to do, though.

She fought her way through the rubble, coughing hard. She found the girl prone at the bottom of the ruined stairs. She heard a loud crack from above and looked up to see a ceiling beam give way and fall towards them. She threw herself over the girl and shut her eyes, waiting for the end.

But it never came. When Naminé opened her eyes, she was shocked at what she saw. In her hand was a white keyblade with what looked like notebook spiral binding running up the blade parallel to a red stripe. Blue stripes ran horizontally down the blade. The teeth were made up of colored pencils: red, blue, green, pink, and yellow. The handle was circular and looked like a silver chain in an infinite loop. The grip was the same white as the blade. The chain was a small charm with a white crayon on it.

“My gosh…” she said before falling into another coughing fit. She would have to admire it later. She picked up the girl and ran for the exit, using the keyblade to cut their way to freedom moments before the building collapsed.

*****

Naminé woke up in Merlin’s house, spread across his table. She pushed herself up into a sitting position.

“Oh good, you’re awake! I must say, you gave us all quite the scare there, my dear. That was a reckless thing you did.”

“The girl,” Naminé asked, her voice raspy. “Is she okay?”

Merlin gave a gentle smile. “Yes, she’s alright. Have a look.” He gestured to the bed in the corner, where the girl was sleeping soundly, her chest rising and falling steadily. “Her mother was quite grateful to you. You saved that child’s life, and almost lost your own in the process!”

He chuckled at his little joke, and Naminé couldn’t help but laugh along. “Pretty silly of me to risk a life I’ve only had for a few weeks.”

“My dear, an act of heroism isn’t dependent on what it is you’re giving up. You could be two days or two hundred years old. It’s the decision to fight for somebody else that makes you special.”

Naminé smiled at the kind old man, then jumped off the table in excitement. “Oh! I have something to show you!” With a flick of her right wrist, she summoned her keyblade.”

“Why, Naminé! You have a keyblade!”

Naminé nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! It appeared during the fire. We both would have died without it.”

Merlin chuckled again. “Yes, these things tend to be fickle, only showing themselves when it’s the most important.”

Naminé nodded, remembering when Roxas was in the Twilight Town simulation and the Kingdom Key would appear whenever he needed to fight the nobodies, even if he had no idea what he was doing or how to summon it willingly.

Merlin’s joyous expression fell. “Now that you have that, there is something we must discuss.”

Naminé raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

Merlin sighed. “I’m no keyblade master. I tried to teach Kairi and Lea how to use their keyblades, and you saw how well that turned out. I can’t train you, Naminé. You have a decision to make. You can either stay here, or you can go find a keyblade master to teach you. Apprentices usually live close to their masters, rather than having to travel between worlds to train. I’m afraid that in order to master that blade, you’ll have to leave Radiant Garden.”

Naminé looked at the keyblade thoughtfully. On the one hand, Radiant Garden felt like home. On the other, it was her responsibility as one of the chosen wielders to protect the light with her abilities. She looked back up at Merlin resolutely. “I’ll go find a master.”

Merlin nodded, somewhat sadly. “It was nice to spend time with you, my dear. Now, who did you have in mind?”

*****

Riku paced nervously up and down the beach. Sora rolled his eyes.

“Dude, you’re overreacting. You’ll be a great teacher, I know it! After all, you’re the one who taught me how to fight with toy swords all those years ago. And never once have I beaten you when sparring with the keyblade.”

Kairi laughed. “Sora, I don’t think that’s helping.”

Riku muttered something about how Sora’s shortcoming would be blamed on his failure as a teacher. 

“That’s not what I meant! Look, you just need to—”

Sora was interrupted as a gateway to the lanes between opened in the sky above them. A small green Gummi Ship flew through the opening and landed gracefully on the beach. The cockpit opened, revealing Cid, who’d built the ship himself, and Naminé, with a suitcase full of whatever personal items she’d collected since her rebirth.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, now you can go read the new chapter of Connection. I hope this was worth the wait!


End file.
